Shards of Confluence: Book 1 Overture
by TheDarkSpirit
Summary: An important mission assigned to Vincent Valentine alone: To find the stolen materia to summon the fierce Bahamut. But the search will lead to a chain of clues to a larger plan. ---Refer to my profile for further summary and regarded information.---
1. Chaos and Claymore

A/N: Hello readers, I am TheDarkSpirit. This isn't the first time I've written a story, but it's a first time for me to post it on . I never post my works online due to various reasons, but here I am now. I accept all reviews as they are. Compliments or flames are both encouraged, but be reasonable when you review and don't be an ass.

This takes place 1 year after Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, 3-4 months prior to "The Witch's Maw" in the Claymore anime/manga, and a made-up storyline for Final Fantasy VERSUS XIII (No I'm not following the actual plot, but for some reason I have a fascination about what I see). I manage to take most of the plots and mingle them into a single massive plot concerning all the categories here. But more or less it is more likely Final Fantasy VII themed than Versus XIII, since it is only a character and idea I will be using.

This is a trilogy-based fiction (of the anime/manga Claymore and the games Final Fantasy VII/Versus XIII crossing) called Shards of Confluence. I hold no ownership on the characters from Claymore or the Final Fantasy I am using except for the original characters I made.

**Prologue**

A single event can send a tidal wave of uncontrollable variables. Genesis continued to live, and he owed his life. He mustered the remains of his forces and SOLDIERs to serve him. Staying on this Planet any longer will expose them, he learnt to use Omega (without disturbing Planet's Lifestream) as a vessel to travel to the nearest suitable planet. And there, it all began. It's been some years since his life was spared, and a year had gone since the Omega incident orchestrated by Deepground. The time was nearing as they will return from the shadows and beckon back into the light.

**Chapter One: Chaos and Claymore**

The night sighed with ease at the coolness of the land. The energetic people of this small city slumbered with dreadful fatigue at the day's end. Silence erupted into the night as the villagers drifted off to their beds, and the lights across the town dimmed into the night. They faded into darkness until only one final glimmer of light shone on.

Tonight, the local inn received visitors from the day's work, and they asked to occupy a room for a day or so. A man and woman: they were yet to become lovers, or even friends, for that matter. They were the final ones to linger late into the night. The man was named Vincent – name for a demon in red and black, and the woman was named Flora – the name of an angelic figure.

Vincent wore a red cape (that seems like it has a mind of its own) over his black leather attire with belt straps over his clothes hinting a sort of style, everything was black leather from his gloves to his boots with a customized claw for his left hand and armor plating for his boots (all made with gold alloy), and his black hair pooled down his back to his shoulder blades with a red bandana to hold his hair from flowing frontward. He leaned on the wall near the windows for countless hours with his eyes closed. But he did not sleep; after all, he had slept too much in his past life. Across the room, Flora sat upon a chair situated next to the windows.

The garb she wore was a Claymore outfit consisting of a pale grey, tightly fitting, two-piece uniform. Over this, she wore shin high metal boots with slight heels, large wrist guards, large pauldrons and a partial skirt. Finally, Flora wore a cape and a choker marked with the individual Claymore's specific certification symbol embedded in it. Each Claymore's symbol was unique and served as an identification marker. It also appeared on their sword and black card. But tonight, her outfit was torn everywhere, her shoulder pads showed its scars of battle. Judging by the looks, she should have died, but then he came.

She dwelled in her thoughts, she had believed she was going to die when death only stood moments away from her. The Awakened Being she fought was immensely stronger than her powers by far. But orders were orders, and she needed to slaughter this monster or it would kill more humans. That was why Claymores existed, to be able to combat these beasts, greater monsters than themselves. But how did he do it? How could he fight and defeat an Awakened Being?

Vincent's voice interrupted the many thoughts churning within her mind. "I have never asked you yet; may you tell me your name?"

Flora turned her head, exposing her blond hair onto the moonlight as it glowed in the evening. "Flora, number 8 from the Organization's warriors, _Claymores_, as humans call us by that name. And yours?"

"Vincent Valentine. I have no allegiance to anyone except to my friends and myself."

Flora acknowledged the information given to her but decided to continue asking him the questions that still troubled her. "How did you do it?"

"Hm?" he replied softly.

"How did you kill the Awakened Being? I cannot detect any sort of Yoki energy from you."

"I only killed a monster. A monster is just a monster, nothing more and nothing less to me. And I have yet to learn of this 'Yoki' energy you speak of."

"Yoki is a life energy that flows through the bodies of Claymores and monsters that we call Yoma and Awakened Brings. But I detect none whatsoever from you, and yet you were able to kill it with a single attack."

"So it is called Yoki in this world…" Vincent said to himself, _"But she said bodies of Claymores, Yoma, and Awakened Beings as if it's only for these selected living beings."_

"'In this world; what do you mean?"

Vincent walked towards her and took out his cell phone. Flora blinked curiously. _What a strange object!_ Vincent saw she was not aware of this type of technology; she was ignorant of technology of this caliber. He flipped opened his phone, and the screen appeared showing a recorded message. Seeing that she was still confused by the object, Vincent laid the phone on the tablet beside her and pressed the "OK" button. The message began to play.

"Vincent… I have a mission for you." The object spoke.

Flora gasped and backed away from this mysterious device, grabbing her sword instinctively. Vincent chuckled to himself but on the outside, he remained impassive. He pressed the pause button to halt the message.

"As I said, I am not of this world; I've come from a distant world known as, as some call it, Gaia. In my world, we have fused our civilization with magic and technology; as you can see, we have a variety of things that this world has yet to see or create. I am part of an organization, or so they say, that I am part of, known to be WRO: the World's Restoration Organization. The WRO serves as an organization with military power to maintain the equilibrium of our world (as the name states). Humans have caused much devastation to it, now we must preserve what little life our planet has. Until then, my world will heal itself in time."

"I see." Flora listened as hard as she could. Claymore or not, beings from a distant world were of interest.

"Thirteen days ago, I arrived here to commence my mission. This recording is the mission I was given; it was recorded fifteen days ago." He looked over her tense profile. "Do not be frightened, it is a practically harmless device. This is called a phone, it is a tool for communicating people from a distant, has the ability to capture a message spoken by a person as well." To prove his point, he resumed the recording.

"Several days ago, Bahamut Zero was summoned by an unknown user. Bahamut went berserk and attacked a near by village from its summoning point; there were no survivors. From what we have gathered, this unknown 'user' is not of this Planet. We have intelligence report on a patrol party engaging an opponent near the village Bahamut attacked. They were critically injured but they will live, but they were able to wound the enemy. He was not bleeding of ordinary blood though. It was looked into our archives and so far it has come up with no matches to any blood types from humans to fiends. With Lucrecia Crescent's database of other worlds and its species, we finally gather that its origin was from the world next to ours. This world is not as advanced as we thought, yet the civilization that lies here is threatened by a group of monstrous beings called Yoma. We were able to conclude that one of these "Yoma" somewhat found a way to control Bahamut. We need you to retrieve the Bahamut summon materia, see what plot this user has, find out before 'he' or 'she' or even 'it' does something reckless, and eliminate the user. This is unknown to the others except a few individuals; secrecy is its primal initiative."

The recording stopped. He decided that since he was in this world, he had to tell someone the information to get accurate results to get some sort of lead on his case.

"I have yet to make any leads upon this user or its plans for Bahamut and I require someone's aid from this world. You were within my reach. Your cooperation is… appreciated."

Flora looked into Vincent's eyes, to see the value of this "mission" of his. After finding what she was looking for, she closed her eyes and sighed. In the corner of Vincent's eyes he could make out a small, faint smile coming from her.

"Tomorrow, I will be traveling north of here; there are cities in the north where they require me to find and destroy Yomas along the way. There are rumors in the north that I am not even certain of, but if you like, well, you can accompany me to the north," she said, looking away from Vincent.

"Hm... there's no real alternative, but, it is a start," Vincent replied. He backed off the wall and headed to the door.

Flora spoke friendly to him, "I will assist you best I can, after all you did save me. I owe- Wait! Where are you going?" Flora's smile instantly changed to question as he began to holster his weapon and prepared to leave the room.

"Stay here and rest well tonight, I will return before dawn. There is something I need to do for the time being," Vincent said picking up his phone as he departed from the room.

Flora tried to get up, but winced in pain as she looked down on her injured body. It was yet to be fully healed. "I better rest to fully heal my wounds," she muttered to herself.

Closing her eyes, she removed her pauldrons, plunged her sword into the wooden ground and leaned upon her steel blade, allowing her own body to repair the damage done to her.

Her dreams were of Vincent's voice, and the strange little contraption called a phone.

*****

Morning came and Flora woke to the light glimmering into her room Sunlight filtered from the window and brightened the room quite a lot. In the far reaches of the sunbeam, a shadowy figure stood in the corner.

"You have incredible healing abilities," it said.

Flora quickly recognized it as her companion from the previous day. "It's one of the many abilities that we possess."

"Still, to be able to heal such wounds as fatal as yours in one night would be ridiculous for an ordinary human," said Vincent, stepping out of the shadow.

Flora rose from the ground. Regardless of the comfortable beds that were in the room, neither occupant had the comfort to lie on it.

"The innkeeper brought us breakfast, but I told him to take one back since I do not require any supplement."

Flora looked at him oddly; even a Claymore had to eat small amounts of food to be able to sustain full use of their bodies. But no sustenance from provisions would render next to impossible one's fighting condition. "You surprise me. Even I have to take in supplement once in awhile. We, who differ from humans, are unlucky of what we are but also lucky for what we have. With our abilities meant for the destruction of Yomas, we sworn to protect humans from Yomas. Yet to humans, they still treat us like Yomas. After all, monsters are still monsters regardless of their intentions."

"I would say the same, Flora. I was once human as well until I died."

Flora looked at him shocked, many people have said they have died, but meant such words metaphorically. Vincent said it quite literally. Did he mean he had been resurrected?

"I was killed by someone who controlled a person that I cared deeply for in my past life. I died trying to protect her; such was my incompetence. She had learned the man who presumably killed me, was experimented on my lifeless body, before I was considered a failed specimen. She thought that everything was her fault alone; she believed she caused my father's death and now mine. She wanted to revert back time, but it was impossible to do. Choices were limited, the only option she had was merge a being that she was studying, it is not human, but a powerful entity known as Chaos into me it had the power to save me." Vincent gaze out the window and stared at the lonely moon. Flora couldn't help but envy the woman who saved him.

He took a breather then looked down at his hands remembering the first thing he saw, "When I came to I saw what I've become, I was no longer human, it changed me. She was no longer there when I came to. I have driven and condemned her to her untimely guilt leading her to disappear. I didn't blame her for any of this, so I blamed myself calling this my sin. So I fell in deep sleep for thirty years never believing I will ever wake one day. But I did 30 years later, when my sleep was interrupted and now I am here," he concluded, observing like he had just given her his life's end story.

"I don't usually talk much of my past to others. I do not know why I'm sharing this with you. Perhaps it's because I can only feel what you have felt. When I became a warrior, I isolated my past with myself. But every warrior has the same past as I once had. We were protected by those who cared for us deeply and sacrificed themselves to keep us hidden from the slaughter that we ourselves committed."

"I apologize" he suddenly said. She looked at him, confused. "I did not mean for you to confess any tragedies like I have. If it troubles you at all, please do not continue. You merely looked shocked when I mentioned I had died (literally)."

"No, it's not that." Flora hid her face from him. It was not shame, but shyness that had compelled her to retreat. "I… I never have been able to express myself before."

"It's normal for a female like you to blush," Vincent replied.

"It's not that!" She snapped her head back up, showing her reddening cheeks. Vincent only closed his eyes, certain in his victory. She was indeed blushing. Flora looked away, embarrassed.

"As to be expected from a female companion." He approached her, who was too embarrassed to even meet his eyes.

She tried to continue, "But-"

Before she even said two words, he grasped hold of her left jaw line and turn her to face him, causing her to gasp at his touch. He gently move his thumb over her lips keeping them from saying another word.

Vincent tipped her chin up to align her face with his. With no warning or even a gesture, he lean in close to her as her eyes trembled at his crimson eyes. She widened her eyes in shock at his sudden move, was he going to kiss her? His mouth readied to take her at any time, and all she did was waited. Then he finally…

"I told you didn't I? You don't need to say it," he said one final time to her in a way she couldn't describe. It wasn't a kiss, but his words were refreshing while his warm breath stayed close to her as Vincent pulled away. She was breathing heavily; despite all the battles with Yomas and Awakening Beings, and yet this was the hardest time for her to breathe.

"Hmm, I hope I calmed you down a bit," Vincent said.

"In a way," she replied, but in her mind her thoughts ran wild: _"I don't know if it was your words, but you've touched my senses in ways I cannot even describe."_ Her blush did not die down yet. The feeling felt electrifying to her. It was a sensation like never before. Claymores were taught human experience and how to "fake" them, but faking and experiencing them were different. Flora had just experienced it first hand.

"Hm… nourish your body and ready yourself. I will wait for you downstairs," Vincent said, closing the door behind him once again.

She only stood there, stunned at what he had done. She brought her right hand to her lips, skimming for any traces of Vincent's scent. She felt nothing other than that gentle touch from his hand. Though he wore gloves, it was her first contact with another person closely that could've kissed her, by someone who had saved her life. The sensation that flowed through her body was almost frightening. Pushing aside what she was feeling, he was waiting for her. She quickly donned her armor and ate a small portion of her breakfast before joining Vincent…

Where their journey together would begin.


	2. Unseen

**Chapter Two: Unseen**

The journey began when Vincent departed with Flora from the inn that day. They had trekked for almost six days, never stopping to rest for the night. Since the journey to the northern lands was very far away, they continued onwards regardless. Flora took the lead while Vincent followed her, but without any nourishments or rest for six days, she was becoming fatigued. He knew that she needed to relieve her body of its stress.

Vincent did not mention it; he cared not if Flora was tired. As long as they remained on the path to the north, there was no reason to halt. But with every step forward, they seemed to take one step back. He only wished to press forward faster, but in fact, their progress had slowed significantly. Relieving his thoughts, he was just in time to see his guide was falling forward.

Ever since Flora began traveling with her newfound companion, she had yet to show any weakness emitting from her; she was trying to prove to Vincent that she was capable of handling herself. But her _ego_ had gotten the better of her – she wanted to have Vincent see her as a combatable female warrior. The thought of him saving her from death and nearly bestowing a kiss upon her, and her mind deceived her with intimate thoughts, displaced off from her body by weariness.

Her body hence tried to push forward – yet her mind did not respondand then she found herself tumbling. Vincent dashed in front of her and caught her fall.

Flora finally came to and found herself in the protective care of her savior once again. Looking up with her silver eyes to the same man that followed four feet behind her since day one, only now she saw something in depth of his amber eyes.

"Are you alright?" Vincent asked the female warrior in his arms.

"Yes, I was in thought. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," Flora replied, pulling herself out of his arms.

"You need to rest for now, Flora. Unlike me, you do not have the stamina to continue forward until your body is return to health."

"But I'm…" Flora tried to talk back, but Vincent silenced her.

"You were in thought because your mind is trying to keep you going, but your body is growing weaker with every time you move forward."

"But I'm fine, Vincent." Flora tried to convince him by standing on her own, only to see herself fall back into his embrace.

She groaned in exhaustion; only now she began to feel her weakened state. She did not have the strength to go on ahead.

Flora opened her eyes to see Vincent picking her up.

"Night is nearly upon us. I will carry you until we reached a clearing. And then, we will spend the night there. Until then, rest while you can." Vincent told her as he held her in his arms,

"But…" Flora attempted to protest.

"If you're going to be stubborn I will leave you here and search for a new guide then, or you will sleep and I will carry you, what will your choice be?" Vincent boldly asked her, not willing to argue about this. Flora was left speechless. She would've stood up to him, but after few silent moments she quieted down and held onto him. Taking a guess that she had made her choice to rest, he continued on. "Now rest."

Flora never encountered someone who would care for someone like her so. She had long forgotten the warmth of someone else. Tugging closer to Vincent, she felt protected once again, in the arms of this red caped warrior. She entrusted him to care of her as long she rested, and she rested for a very long time.

Vincent looked down at the woman as he walked through the pass, feeling extremely uncomfortable as she gripped onto him. Without a thought, he slowed himself to a halt, allowing him to rekindle the past for a moment. Strangely he noticed that Flora's radiance was almost like _hers_. Longed has he loved the woman in his past, but he also felt something similar in this one as well.

"_The past and present are two different points in life,_" Vincent said to himself.

He began to walk again, but ever since meeting Flora, his mind had become a constant battle between present and past.

The sunset fell below the horizon, but it was a few more hours before Vincent finally found a small clearing to stay for the night. Missing out on the settling of the sun, he cared nothing for the sun, for it was nothing more than a bright light that faded away… only to return again eventually.

He kneeled gently not to wake the sleeping woman, who had been slumbering for some hours. Her body needed the rest, and he needed her rejuvenate her body to continue as his guide. Her figure was laid on the soft grass; he examined her attire, and noticed that she did not need to sleep with her sword and her metal gears. He began with unsheathing her sword and carefully removed her armor. Deliberately he only wanted her to sleep more comfortable.

Flora's simple, single attire was not enough to protect her from night's chill, but Vincent saw that her body remained warm regardless of the cool air. Nonetheless, it would be best to have a fire going; he drifted his eyes to Flora's sword.

"Guns are useless in cutting wood either way. Perhaps she wouldn't mind." Vincent only talked to himself.

Picking up her sword, he felt the sword was heavier than the sword that belonged to his friend Cloud. Then again, the sword his friend used was actually specially designed. Despite the heaviness of the swords he relinquish the though, he could handle them.

He pinpointed some trees near by. Approaching the trees that were of unimpressive height, he swung, and one of them toppled. Remembering the sleeping woman, he quickly moved around to catch the fall of the tree. He slowly guided it to touch the ground lightly, only satisfied once he felt a low thump on the ground. With several swift strokes of the blade, he broke down the tree into firewood of appropriate size. He piled the wood to a sufficient amount to use for the entire night.

The fire was all set to be started; he took out of his cloak a crystal orb call _materia_. Materia are a crystal orbs processing a certain variety of abilities and magical properties. They are categorized by the color of the orbs: green, yellow, red, blue and purple. To use it, Vincent would need to fuse the orb into a weapon or equipment (in other words materia becomes a part of it). And the user who would wield the weapon would be able to cast its potential power.

Vincent positioned the orb close to the claymore and it slowly submerged into the sword giving a nice reddish glow. Aiming the sword at the firewood he had collected, a burst of fire shot out of the sword and into the fireplace igniting it instantly.

Vincent sat next to the fire with her on the other side of the burning flame. Staring into the fire, he realized that the events of the past revolved around flames: four years ago the destruction of Midgar, the final battle with Sephiroth, and the Meteor that nearly destroyed his world; two years ago the battle with the summoning of Bahamut; and the onslaught of the DeepGround Soldiers campaign last year.

Reaching under his cape, he pulled out his three main weapons. The long caliber three barrel pistol "Cerberus"; the long caliber barreled rifle equipped with a sniper scope: the "Hydra"; and a miniature sub-machine gun, "Griffon". He also had several materia of all sorts; he was well armed and fully prepared for any type of battles he would face during the time he was on this world.

But, the only pitfall was: would he be able to defeat Bahamut Zero by himself? Cloud achieved that feat two years ago, but that was when the rest had weakened Bahamut Tremor enough for Cloud to give the final blow.

The Bahamut, a summoning dragon to serve the will of whomever controlling its materia, one of the powerful summons. But there are five different Bahamut ranking them by their powerful attack. Bahamut Tremor was the second most powerful of the five, and Bahamut ZERO the third strongest.

He began to wonder and speculate the meaning of this. _"What does this lead up to? A different species capable of traveling to other planets or perhaps was assisted in doing so."_ Looking to the side where he laid down Flora. Their ways of lives seems so fitted for a normal world, and he knew something was strange about this. Nothing was leading up yet. The mission he took up was to maintain the natural order of both worlds. _"Summons are naturally created by the Planet's Lifestream, why go the lengths of stealing a materia that can be created by this Planet…"_

Dawn was only a few hours away, Vincent predicted, and he figured Flora would need something to eat. Throwing in the remainder of the wood into the fire, he picked up his Cerberus checking his weapon, and then entered the darkened forest.

*****

Flora's eyes fluttered open at the dawn's sunrise. Rising from her resting place, she saw her equipment removed and had been put aside to her patch of grass. Across the small fire were two weapons that most likely belonged to Vincent.

"He must've gone somewhere…" Flora theorized. Suddenly, she finally felt the massive presence of yoki energy. Jolting to her equipments, she equipped herself quickly and immediately ran towards the flow of yoki.

"_How did this just appear out of no where!?_" Flora thought out loudly. The presence of a massive yoki, she can assume it was an Awakened Being.

Sprinting from left to right, she could hear the sounds of a battle raging as she came closer to the source. Blood was splattered everywhere, red and purple blood alike. She steadily kept a firm grasp on the hilt of her sword.

"Vincent!" Flora called out (worriedly), but received no response as the clashing continued.

Heading towards the battle, Flora called out his name one last time before entering the scene.

One step into the clear, Flora only looked so shocked at the battle. The damage to the forest was extensive and the amount of blood smeared was massive. One of combatant was an Awakened Being but the other was also a horrid monster. But, she had never seen such a thing and immediately presumed that it could have closely resembled a deadly monster that she had heard of.

A lion-humanoid creature, it was unlike anything she had already seen before. The skin was grayish-purple, a toned upper body shape, but its limbs were lean. It had legs like the back-legs for wolves and dogs, and large fearsome claws like a yoma. The head resemble that of a lion with white hair streaming down its back.

"It couldn't be…" Flora believed it was the former first generation of male warriors, Number 2, Rigaldo. What got Flora's attention was not the figure of this creature or the fact she could not sense yoki in it, but the fact was that the clothing it wore around its waist, looked identical to that of Vincent's red cape.

"H-he couldn't have…" Flora stuttered her words, leaving herself physically exposed to attack. The Awakened Being spotted the Claymore, threw the lion beast aside and charged at Flora changing its choice of target. Its tentacles sprouted from its body and shot forward at Flora.

She drew her Windcutter technique managed to cut through its attack, but the Awakened Being's chance of killing her was very high. Still, most awakened being battles requires a party of four warriors; she was just a single digit warrior. Doing what she could, she attacked it and defended herself continuously using her special technique. The fight was fierce, but the battle with the creature did considerable damage to Awakened Being, giving Flora the chance to kill it if possible. But it was still not enough.

"Oh no…" Flora whispered to herself as she didn't see the unforeseen rear attack. Three tentacles pierced Flora's body. Crying in agony, Flora tried to resist the pain and cut off the tentacles. Falling onto her knees, these tentacles were wide in diameter creating large gaps in her abdomen and one in her shoulder. The Awakened Being was quite amused to see her clutching her wounds while blood poured through.

"Now to end your pathetic life!" The monster laughed as it lashed out its arm, stretching it to its farthest end. Its massive clawed hands were more than enough to rip her head off.

Though she was at the edge of death once again, there was no Vincent in sight to protect her. The claws were only a few feet before reaching its target until a flurry of fireballs ripped away the extended arm. The host cried in pain as its appendage was severed. Regardless of the countermeasure, the hand continued to glide through the air towards Flora for the kill.

She had glimpsed death face-to-face once again, but now in a blink of an eye, her eyes looked upon an ebony, muscular back and length white hair, and the Awakened Being's hand punctured through its chest instead, red gore splattering across her face. The creature growled in pain and fury, removing the hand stuck within it, with astonishing speed appeared in front of injured Awakened Being.

The Awakened Being had not saw it coming but the beast gripped its remaining arm, crushing it, while the other hand placed upon its stomach… if it had one. A deathly glow emitted from its hand and a fireball smashed into the Awakened Being exploding on impact and tore its back. The Awakened Being was twice its size, but size did not matter in this case the creature bested it. But it was not dead yet.

"Now, Flora… kill it now," the creature spoke to Flora, holding a firm grip on the Awakened Being so it could not escape.

Unaware that it had called her name, Flora sprinted to give the final blow to the Awakened Being.

"Wait!" As the Awakened Being cried out its last word, Flora used her Windcutter technique again and successfully destroyed the head of the being. As its body fell limp, the surviving monster allowed the body to drop to the ground.

It had called her by her name. She observed this monster that was yet to look at her. It began to turn around, and with defensive instinct Flora readied herself to use the Windcutter technique once more.

The beast came into full view… looking at Flora and seeing her ruined clothes in shambles. Her wounds were terrible, but they were not fatal enough. The bloodstains of her wounds dampened her skin, yet she still stood her ground. But to Flora's confusion, the beast chuckled.

"Once again, I've saved you from the abyss of death…" the beast said to her.

"Huh? It couldn't be…" mumbled Flora. "Vincent?"

"Indeed it is me," he replied, his voice slowly returning to normal. A shinning bright light engulfed the beast's form. She closed her eyes to avoid the brightness to her eyes. She opened them once that glowed no longer pierced beneath her eyelids. She peeped out to see where Vincent was standing. He had returned to his original human form, his clothes normal, but in his hand was a similar weapon back at camp.

Flora looked in amazement at Vincent. He placed away his weapon and walked towards her. He reached for her hand and placed something in it.

She was speechless. _"How?"_ was the only word she could think of?

"I got you your breakfast." It was all that Vincent said. Handing her an enormous fruit, Flora looked down, closing her eyes and smiling.

"Thank you Vincent," she said.

Without warning or signs, Vincent coughed out blood, his gore splattering onto the fruit. A horrified Flora stared at him even as began falling forward.

"Vincent!" Flora caught and held onto his body, but due to her lack of food, she barely had the strength to hold him up. She tumbled to the ground with him. "Vincent! Vincent, are you alright!" Flora got up and tried to wipe the blood away from his face and spotted his injury on his left rib cage. It was a direct puncture wound, larger than a size of a fist, breaking the rib cage and possibly even scratched his left lung. He was bleeding badly and possibly internally as well.

"That monster got me good… my healing capabilities are not so strong after the battle." He admitted. "I was healing the other wounds, but, this took a toll on my body," he winced in pain as a surge of unquestionable suffering his body was in. And a pint of blood gushed out from the injury, the chances of him not surviving was becoming more of a reality.

"Vincent, hold on. I'm going to treat it right away," Flora quickly assured, ripping a large piece of her cape and trying to use it to suck up the blood as she put pressure on it. She saw the wound was recovering, similar to how her body would heal as well, but at a much slower rate and it continued to slow down.

"Flora… my belt… there's a bottle of green liquid. Hand that to me," he weakly requested of her.

Flora nodded and looked on his belt and saw a small bottle of what he described on the right side on his belt.

"I have it, Vincent, now what?"

"Help me up, I need to drink some of it," he said, gritting his teeth while clutching his wound. But this action has cause to only worsen his current state.

She did what he told her; she helped him up, unscrewed the bottle cap and guided the bottle into his mouth.

After a few moments he gulped down the liquid until he signaled it was enough. Vincent then closed his eyes as his body went numb. When Vincent did not open his eyes are even drew a breath, Flora began to believe that Vincent had taken a dosage of deathly water, a gift of eternal rest. "Vincent? Vincent? Vincent Wake up!" She shook him but he did not budge, she slapped him but he didn't stir.

She cradled Vincent in her arms, thinking he took his own life. Tears welled in her eyes, droplets of falling upon his face and mixing the blood with salt. But then, she abruptly felt him regain his body composure, the bloody wound he once had had disappeared. It was amazing, that a wound like that would take only several minutes to heal.

Vincent regained consciousness, opening his eyes and staring up at her face.

"Vincent, I'm so glad!" Flora cried hugging him.

Regaining his senses, the wound no longer ached. It was fully healed; the bones were mending, the flesh was sealed and new skin had weaved itself over leaving no scars behind. But that wasn't what concerned Vincent; right now he was focused on something that he sensed.

"_Why do you care? And how come it's affecting me?"_ Vincent's mind voiced many questions at hand. But looking up and seeing the expression on Flora's face, he asked himself: _"Does my life have meaning to yours?"_

Pulling his body up from her lap, Flora quickly wiped her tears away and apologized. "I'm sorry Vincent, I didn't mean to –," she tried to explain.

"Your apology is not required; though do note in the future that the green liquid was a healing potion. So, you do not have to worry yourself."

Both of them got up and Vincent wiped the blood away from his face. "Sorry, about your breakfast," he lowly spoke.

Flora looked at him, puzzled, and then stared down. Her fruit was squashed and drenched in his blood.

She could only giggle at his excuse for humor, but yet, Vincent's monotone voice hinted that he was actually serious. As for him, seeing her giggle was quite calming, as giving him a time to enjoy himself even after a bloodbath.

"I'm sorry, Vincent," she said excusing herself for laughing when he given her glare as she straighten herself out.

"… Luckily the tree where I got this from isn't far. We can go and retrieve another one for you."

Flora nodded and Vincent led the way to the fruit's origin. Walking away from the bloody battlefield, they reentered into the forest to get another big fruit.

*****

Night soon came, with Flora leading Vincent on the path they had previously traversed. She had eaten the fruit in the morning but strangely; she stopped moving and turned to face Vincent.

Uncertain of her intentions for stopping he asked, "What's wrong?"

"Vincent, can we rest for the night?" Flora asked.

"Are you not at full strength though?" Vincent questioned.

"Yes… but… please?" Flora pleaded.

"If that is your wish, then so be it. You are the guide after all." That was all he said.

Smiling to herself, Flora actually wanted to spend more quiet time with him. She had been saved from death _twice_, _nearly_ given her first kiss, and he scared her with his _near_ death experience. Yet they had not spent much quality time since they first began their journey together. Yes, Flora had endured the walking with him, but it was not like anything like sitting down with the man to try to know him. She was curious.

Finding a spot near the path was a small opening with a stream flowing through it. Here they made camp for the night. They grabbed the battered wood that was already on the ground to save time to cut and chop the tree down. The wood they found sufficed for the night, as Flora began to start the fire. She was about to ignite the firewood with a flint and stone until Vincent stopped her.

"Wait," Vincent told her, Flora paused and looked up at him.

"Vincent? I need to start the fire to get it going," Flora said as she resumed what she was doing before. Vincent placed his hand on her arm, halting her from doing such a job.

"I know. That's why I'm stopping you. Take out your sword." Vincent replied, lifting her from the ground.

Flora dropped the necessities and pulled out her sword. Moving to face her from behind, Vincent was about to show Flora an easier way to start the fire. Flora blushed slightly, never being close to a man such as him. His body warmed hers, his hands gliding down her arms and reaching towards her hands.

"Here… point your sword at the fireplace," Vincent commanded her. She did as she was told. "Now feel your sword… picture your sword with an essence of the element of fire. That small flame waiting to burst."

Flora was focused on her teacher, feeling the sword with her body with a complete unique connection.

"Now… with that flame, set ablaze the wood, release it," Vincent told her firmly, gripping his hands on top of hers.

Feeling a jolt of energy blasting from the sword, Flora opened her eyes to see her sword glowing red.

"My goodness." Flora was speechless.

"Keep your sword pointing, you haven't fully release it, send forth all of it."

And with her mental abilities… the sword flared out a burst of a small fireball into the wood, igniting it instantly.

"How did I…" she sputtered, looking at her sword. It no longer glowed… it was in flames.

The sword gave off an essence that Flora couldn't describe. She looked at Vincent for an answer, and he replied. "I forgot to mention that I enabled your sword to wield the essence of fire. In my world, we have something called materia. Materia are used to equip weapons or equipments in battle or for common use. It a connection between wielder and the materia but you are also…" Vincent began to trail off, "It's quite complicated to explain, and I prefer not to bore you with such explanation. Plus you seen to know how to wield it now so I do not think it is really necessary."

Flora beamed at him for trying to explain to her this new form of power he had given her. She never really felt magic truly existed, but giving her the privilege to wield its power in a tiny fraction. Although she was uncertain that she would be able to master it, Vincent said otherwise. She proceeded to remove her armor gear while Vincent sat and leaned back over a tumbled log.

"Your sword remains the same but it obtained a new advantage; the flame your sword produces is for you to choice how to use it; whether you want to start a fire, or you to burn your enemies to the ground."

She smiled to herself, as part of her plan was underway and conversation began between the two. Flora wished to know more of Vincent and the many traits that he had yet to show. She sat by the fire, a few feet from him, thinking of different topics. Then, she remembered the morning, when Vincent was not human during the fight with the Awakened Being.

"This morning, when you encountered the Awakened Being," Flora began looking at him for the answers she hoped he would answer.

"Yes?" Vincent said, knowing what she wished to ask.

"You took the form of a beast that was known in these lands. Ar– are you the Silver Eye Lion King?"

He looked at her strangely, how can she connect him to that name? His eyes were amber when human, but gold in his beast form.

"No. Perhaps we shared similar features but I do not have silver eyes. When you saw me in this morning was an ability I have. This ability is called _limit break_, it is like a special technique or countermeasure if you will, for damage being done to me. Certain individuals are able to use this ability and have their own limit break. My limit breaks is the transformation of myself, what you saw me was a form which I call Galian Beast. I have a level for each of the four forms I have, but I would prefer the Galian Beast for reasons."

"Oh, I see. Is it by your own will that you turn into such a thing?"

"Yes, there was a time where my current strength seems futile, and I required more power. These Awakened Beings… what are they? Where do they originate?"

Flora only wished that he wouldn't ask that question. "Do you really want to know?" she asked.

Vincent looked in her eyes and saw the significance of the topic. If they were to survive together, they might as well give information of anything useful.

"Awakened Beings are the final form of warriors such as I when we used too much of our yoki energy and cannot control the powers we have released. To us, we would only use up to a certain amount of yoki. In desperate measures we would exceed a certain amount to end a battle, but chances of becoming an Awakened Being are likely to happen no matter what. The yoki energy within us was from Yoma flesh intergraded into us to enable us to combat Yoma and Awakened Beings alike."

"In other words you have the potential of turning into an Awakened Being, then," he theorized calmly.

Flora closing her eyes, knowing that the truth hurt, as much as she wished it to be false. It was true.

"Yes…" Flora confirmed. Expecting a shocked Vincent, she was surprised when he walked over and kneeled before her instead.

"How much of your energy do you have to use in a worse case scenario?" he asked her.

"The highest we can possibly go is forty percent, but each individual can exceed a higher amount depending how it can be controlled. Why?" Flora asked.

With his metal claw, he forced his hand into himself. But this was no physical attempt, a black mist-like was surrounded his hand as it entered his body.

"Vincent!" was her only reaction at his action.

Vincent grunted in pain, his hand searching for something within him until he grasped it. He wrenched a crystal orb out of him. He stumbled backwards and at on the soft ground, panting at the task and sweat gathering on his face. To Flora, she could only see extreme pain in his body.

Flora was still puzzled, as she just saw him reaching into his own body. Yet no blood came out.

"Here," Vincent spoke to her showing her a bluish orb.

"What is it?"

"It is a special materia, one of the rarest of them all. I am giving you control of your powers, this is called the _protomateria_. It controls the powers within you from going berserk, in your case turning yourself into a monster."

"But why do you have it?"

"In order to keep the demon within me controlled… Chaos, but because of the events of my past I am able to control Chaos. The protomateria is only a safety measure for me. But you… there is something inside me telling me that it is better for you to contain yourself than I." Vincent explained, offering this precious gift.

"_He's willing to give me this for my sake?"_ Flora thought. "But Vincent, I rarely use my powers, so please put it back within you. I guarantee you I will not use more than twenty-five percent of my power in any case."

"…If that is your wish…" Vincent replied, placing the orb into his body once again.

Once again Flora stared in amazement at his world's culture. This was the leisure time she wanted to spend with him. They were sharing their time together, but that was until she felt _his_ presence; her plan was wrecked by that man. Holding back her frustration, she forced herself to meet with her superior.

"Vincent I'm going to meet my watcher, it would be best if you remain here." Flora replied with distaste in her gentle voice.

"Watcher?" Vincent asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"They are the ones that give me orders. I need to meet with him… alone."

Vincent nodded in silence and remained where he was. Flora walked away from her location into the deepness of the forest. After walking for almost thirty minutes, a voice called out.

"Picking up strangers along the journey is a very bad thing."

Stopping in her tracks, she turned to the voice.

"What orders have you come to give me?"

"Ah straight to the point I see. Very well then, we sent a team to the north to hunt down an Awakened Being. Somehow our intelligence was extremely inaccurate."

Looking concern for the matter, Flora listened…

*****

Flora developed a second opinion of her purpose as a warrior. They were supposedly to destroy those who harm humans. They were tools at most to protect those with lives, but yet she had a life as well. Not as a normal human, but a life that she chose to live.

As she thought upon that matter, she began to feel tired, and the walk back to the camp was increasing her tiredness. Flora couldn't explain why she was feeling tired though. When she reached back to the campsite, she gazed upon an unexpected sight. She looked at the fire with a faint smile; Vincent was asleep. Shallow breaths rose and expelled from his lungs, in the same position he was in when she left.

It was a peaceful moment of the night. Striding towards the sleeping individual, she made herself comfortable near him. It was the closest she could get to him, as she rest her body closely to him, placing her head upon his left shoulders.

She found to be at ease when she's around him, but she felt comforted when she's near him. She'd rather become closer to him than any other person she known.

Thoughts of her watcher's words soon became an erased memory; all that was left was the remainder of this peaceful night. A devious idea came to her in using his unconscious body for her, Flora began to fluster. This was the only time she'd ever have. Believed she wasn't going to get another chance.

Her left hand fell onto his face. Strands of black and few of her static golden hair attached itself to his face. Brushing away the hair, her hand stroked at his skin. Never had any men possessed such beauty. There were no scars or what so ever on any of it.

Slowly moving downwards, she unfastened the crimson cloak, exposing his attire and placing her hand over his heart. It vibrated with every heartbeat, not skipping a beat. It was music to her ears. Feeling guilty for her need to feel this man, she prayed that he would never notice, but…

Trying to moving to a safe distance, unexpectedly Vincent pulled Flora with his clawed hand and moved her closer to him than she had ever gone. Surprised at the turn of the events, believing Vincent had caught her, looking up… to only see the same sleeping face.

She was unsure what had happened; was his unconscious mind able to capture her into his clutches? Either way, she could not escape, bringing his cloak around to cover her surprised body to protect her from night's chill. Hugging her petite figure with one arm, his body felt rigid, as if Vincent did not wanted her to leave.

As helpless as the situation was… it was something that she longed for. With no other choice, she rested her head on his chest, bringing her arms around him and wrapped him into her embrace as well. Vincent once again threw his other arms and placed it on Flora's back.

This is what she wanted since he saved her life; this is what she needed to bring proof to herself. This was her truth… she had fallen for the deadliest warrior she had encountered so far. This day was in favor to her, and she was glad how the day ended as well. Regardless of what news she had recently received, nothing mattered to her now; no past and no future, only the bliss of the present moment.

It was a lovely night. Drawing into a slumber, Flora closed her eyes as she snuggled closer to Vincent. Unnoticed, Vincent smiled in his sleep as well. The unforeseen truth was that Flora and Vincent secretly longed for each other's warmth of embrace.


	3. True

**Chapter Three: True**

Awakening from his sleep, he breathed in the fresh scent of moist grass. The sensations of the damp, dewy morning mean that it was another day. He basked in nature's peace and warmth, and it was something he could not describe. But it nature did not compare with the warmth of the body beside him.

Opening his eyes, he could see a shadowy presence of blurriness before he was able to adjust his vision from his sleep. Everything in sight looked similar the night before, but there was no sign of the Claymore.

Despite having scanned the entire vicinity, she was nowhere to be found. He noted something to himself, why did his chest feel so… snug. Disregarding the whereabouts of Flora, he glanced down and found something that he believed was a mirage.

Under his cloak-like-blanket was something lying on his chest. Golden locks of hair were spread across his leather garment. It also covered the face of the suspicious sleeper.

"What the…" Vincent questioned, looking down at the mysterious being.

He could not recall the previous night after he slept, but the glimmering images of his dream were as clear as the morning dew. He did not wish to indulge his own fantasy, but he could not help it.

He realized something else. He released the woman's body; yet after he had removed his hands, he felt something that he hadn't thought of since his first awakening. He felt… incomplete?

Brushing aside her fringe, he finally uncovered the loveliness of Flora's face. Her fragrant scent ravaged his senses. The sweet skin of hers invited him to taste it, to kiss it. He removed his glove from his hand, something he hadn't done in awhile. Staring down at his exposed skin and flesh, he was a monster within that lusted for blood and destruction, but somehow he was glad he was control such urges and continue to keep his form of a human. Looking at his hand was proof that he was still human by heart.

"Maybe I can still feel what humans would," he encouraged himself, wondering if his emotions were yet to be forgotten. Aching to place his hand upon her clothed body, he gently moved his hand up and down her back. The fabric of her suit was tight around her body. It was exhilarating as he felt his blood pumped quickly throughout his body.

The ghost of her touch stirred him. He had revealed his true face and discarded his mask. To his surprise, because of his actions, Flora cooed in comfort from his soft touch on her back. To hear such a sound coming from her was somewhat… adorable?

Vincent only realized that his actions were similar thirty years ago. The time he spent with her… Lucrecia. The burden of that thought destroyed the relaxation he had just acquired. An odd feeling overtook him as he returned his gaze at his own hand. His eyes wandered back at what he was touching.

Her hips… these hips of hers were perfectly shaped and feminine. Sexual temptations slowly lingered into his thoughts now. Clasping down his eyes shut, to expel those regrettable images that haunted his mind.

Then suddenly, it did; somewhat. Vincent pressed his mentality to balance his essence. The impure thoughts soon evaporated. He had imagined Flora in sinful ways his inner devil would see her as such. But, the picture changed; under a crisp blue sky with a few strayed clouds overhead and the setting sun, he was near a grassy cliff of a sea, and there at the edge of the land, he saw her as a gentle angel like in his dream the night before, the angel who wore a silk thin strapped sleeveless white dress. A dress that flowed to her ankles soared with the wind's breeze and her glimmering blond hair also flew into the direction of nature's call. The scene was calming, but moreover it brought him to his senses.

Vincent's vital signs normalized with his mind in tranquility, opening his eyes looking down the tender woman.

Abruptly, Flora began to stir, fidgeting in the confinement in his arms, and opening her eyes to meet upon his gaze on her. Believing her dream of the night still continued, she tried to touch his face. She grazed her hand slowly tracing his jaw; taking some time before Flora realized she was awake and it was no dream.

It was unknown to Vincent why he would let her do such a thing but frankly, he enjoyed her touch.

"Vincent…" Flora whispered tenderly.

The way she spoke his name was as if it came from her heart, and it struck him emotionally. Clasping his hand on hers, he also replied. "Good morning, Flora." Not as heartfelt as he thought, but it was better than his usual emotionless voice.

Flora staggered in response, "Oh, good morning, Vincent." Looking up at his composed complexion, she felt embarrassed that he had woken before she did in order to pry herself free from his cage. "Sorry; I hope I wasn't a nuisance in your sleep. You... pulled me to sleep in your arms unconsciously," She apologized sincerely, trying to break off the connection.

"No… let's stay like this for now. It is somewhat… comforting to feel your presence close to me." He gently tightened his grip on her arms holding her steady.

She felt an emotion emitting from the rigid warrior. He wished for her company even after she had just slept with him. She didn't know what to think, sleeping with him was one thing, but spending her waking moments with him was also her desire.

"It's rather early in the day, I suppose; perhaps I can stay like this until the sun rises," she said smiling, placing her head back to its rightful place.

Flora heard him spoke quietly, "You remind me of her..." and startled her a bit.

She desired to know everything about Vincent, "Whom do you speak of?" she liked to know; she wanted to know. Much to his dismay he wasn't expecting her to hear him or even mentioned about this to her, but since she had asked he was going to answer her questions.

Vincent gazed into the forest as he told his story, "Thirty years ago before I had entered my deep sleep and before I became what I am, there was a woman whom I cared deeply for. She was the one who saved my life."

Flora nodded in remembrance of their first conversation before they began this journey, "You carry the entity known as Chaos."

"Yes. In exchange for my life I now carry her legacy. She devoted her research to the pursuit of Omega and Chaos, which are existences essential for my planet. This was her life's work. Her name was Dr. Lucrecia Crescent."

Looking up at him she remembered whom he spoke of. "I assume it is the same Lucrecia Crescent, the one mentioned on your 'phone'?"

He nodded, "We spent time like this, sharing one another. She was full of life and brought happiness. She would pull herself away from work in order to pull me away as well. She would want me to take walks with her through gardens of lilies. It was the only time I felt in joy because I was with her. She felt the same way too. Now, all those events are now in the past… and memories."

She knew in agreement of his experience with Lucrecia. "I also enjoyed these times with my family," she confessed.

"Your family?"

Nodding and remembering the memories of her past, "Yes, when I was very small, my father, mother and my elder big brother always went on trips such as this one. We would spend many happy moments together. My brother and I would play by the trees and my father would cherish my mother's love. We would hold each other to keep ourselves warm from the cold nights. Sadly, on the final trip…" She began her story normally, but soon her voice became unsteady.

"We were approached by a stranger; we believed he needed our help. He was a yoma in disguise; my father tried to fight him as my mother hurried brother and I out of the yoma's sight. The yoma soon caught up to us, and then, before I knew it…my father was dead. My mother flung herself at the monster as she instructed my brother to protect me. Obedient as he was, he brought me far away as possible, still it caught up."

She pushed herself up from his body and looked into the view in front of her as if the scene was flashing before her eyes. "I knew my mother was no longer of this world too. Wasting no time, he threw me into hiding as I watched him face off against it. Like my father carried a sword with him. Unable to put up much of a resistance due to the yoma larger and stronger frame than my brother was. The yoma caught my brother from behind and slowly clawed his flesh ripping his body. My brother was in its grip, he didn't resist to the yoma's brutality. I couldn't understand it at first, but he was smiling towards me; I didn't know why he was even smiling. Then he had another hidden sword unnoticed by either me or the yoma, I realized he too would keep me safe. With his free hand, he… he killed himself by stabbing upwards through his heart and into the yoma's head. Blood was everywhere. He fell onto the ground face down in the pool of blood he drenched in while the yoma fell on the opposite side. Somehow the yoma was still living; my brother had pierced its face, but not enough to kill him. And I…"

"Flora… you're crying," he interrupted.

He took noticed of Flora's emotional state. She wasn't aware that this traumatic event is causing her a great deal of discomfort enough to shed tears.

"You do not need to continue anymore, this event was too traumatic for you to recall," Vincent assured her.

Ignoring his concern, she pressed on. "I removed the blade impaled in my brother and gave the final blow to the yoma's head. I stabbed the sword right through its head. When I did it I knew nothing more than hate, anger, fear, sorrow. The emotions of a human… with those, I finally cut off its head but that was not all, I lost it. I lost control of myself then. I couldn't stop mutilating it."

Her tears wouldn't stop flowing as she grasped him by the arms tightly. Feeling slightly hurt from the pressure, he looked into the depth of her eyes. His amber eyes met with the watery silver ones.

"We have all been through the vengeance for the death of someone. Your family came down to the resolution that your brother and you could be save, except then _only_ you were the one that could be saved. Your brother smiled because he knew you would live on. Their sacrifice was not in vain, Flora; you standing before me as their daughter and sister is living proof. A brave young woman, who is now a warrior, that protect others from the feelings you have endured. To continue to fight for vengeance is a disgrace to their memory. Your raison d'être is why should you continue is the reason why you are alive."

It seemed as if an elderly man was soothing her, after all he was over sixty years old. Unable to take it anymore, she flung forwards. Taken by his reason, she cried into his chest.

"Thank you Vincent… but that is why I am living. I know you mean well, I assure you I am aware of their sacrifice. That is why I continue to fight, to live." Her tears soon halted their flow, and her voice soared with .

He felt what he had forgotten as he hugged her softly. What he saw in her was not intentionally what he wanted, but what he needed. This woman lying in his arms was the tranquility he longed for. For the first time in his life, he had forgotten all his sins and felt forgiven. He never thought forgiving himself would ever bring him his peace.

A friend asked him once some years ago, "if one could forgive oneself?" Lucrecia… even she wanted him to forgive himself. Nothing was to be blamed.

"Thank you for making me feel human again…" Their hug tightend, as they both knew what was it like to embrace as human, to understand their true nature.

They lingered like this for a little while longer. She wanted to remain like this for the rest of the day, but she turned away from Vincent. She headed over to her neatly tidied organization attire and began dressing herself. Vincent was in a state of confusion, because he didn't know why she would abruptly wreck a peaceful moment.

"Flora?" he asked.

She had her back turned at him when she put on her armor. "Duty calls, Vincent," she said to him turning around smiling at him, "There's a mission to exterminate I must do in the city of Morella which is only less than half the morning hours walk from here. It's also along our path to the north."

Vincent also got up, but felt his body was still asleep. Stretching his limbs and neck, he holstered his weapons in place, giving Flora the courtesy nod, "Lead the way."

*****

Vincent observed from within the crowd. He watched as Flora began her mission, she said that five monsters were feeding off the humans of this town. There wasn't a monster in sight when they entered the city, until Flora had struck and killed a human who was conversing with another. She drew her sword faster than anyone he knew. As soon as the human was cut diagonally, blood spewed out from the corpse emptying its body of its fluids.

People began crying out in terror once Flora killed the human. At first he thought they were screaming in terror and confusion at the sight of the purple blood that covered the grounds around her. No, they were screaming out, calling her murderer, a human killing-machine.

People from left and right accidently tumbled over, because Vincent stood in their way like an obstacle to overcome, Four soldiers came out of the terrified crowd and charged at Flora with their spears drawn.

Flora effortlessly cut the spearheads off their weapons, and took a swing at them. They evaded, keeping their distance from the blond warrior. These four soldiers became enraged, their bodies became engorged with muscular flesh, tearing away their uniforms and their light armor snapping from the stress of the larger body mass. Their skin changed to a muddy brown and their hands were twice as large sharpened with claw-like fingers. Their eyes were also similar to structure that of a cat due to their golden eye color and the slit apertures.

They growled and howled in retaliation, their fangs and claws stretched out giving them a more gruesome image against the Claymore. Vincent kept his hand on Cerberus as a precaution. Prior to entering Morella, Vincent remembered what she asked of him. "Please don't interfere with my job to slay the yomas or come to my rescue when needed. They hide in the crowds and only I can find them."

He gave his word he wouldn't intervene, but precaution couldn't hurt. By now, the citizens around watched as the five begun to fight. She started with her preemptive strike, killing one, the remaining four who posed as city guards all attacked at once.

She put back her sword and just held the handle firmly. Everyone thought she was out of her mind, leaving herself as an easy target, but kept her grip on her sword. They ran fast at her, bearing their fangs and claws for the shared kill. A series of sword slashing was heard, but seemed like nothing happened except a gust of wind blew Flora's hair around before it settled again. In fact, the large brutes ran passed her as she remained where she was. A split second later, the yomas stumbled over with purple blood ejecting out of the injuries. They released an agonized cry before succumbing to death.

A woman cried out in fright at the first body and the crowd paid attention to the fallen human, finally noticing that it was not human after all. It physical appearance changed to that of the other four who posed as city guards.

The crowd remained quiet as Vincent examined the humans, expecting some sort of praise or gratitude. All he heard was despicable narrow-minded thinking.

"Amazing, so this is the power of the silver-eyed witches. Only monsters can kill monsters, it's a fact." A citizen muttered.

"Still, this one is quite the looker. Wouldn't mind ravaging that body of hers if I had the chance to," another spoke quietly.

He heard many similar comments about Flora, there was no sense of genuine gratitude from the populace of this city. "Was saving these lives even worth it?" he thought as he eyed each individual citizen.

"Um, thank you for dispatching the yomas so quickly." A short middle-aged man with a beard walked up to Flora with a massive bag of what appears to be payment for the job.

"All yomas have been eliminated in this city." Flora spoke gently, "You may give the money to the one who collects the payment afterwards. A mysterious man dressed in black will pass by to collect, give it to him."

The man nodded nervously and backed away from her. Agitation grew amongst the humans; to them she was no better than a monster. Frightened by her half-yoma side, they never considered looking at the other half.

He observed a little longer, she only stood there symbolizing herself as a stigma to the ones she saved. He made eye contact with her, signaling her would be best to leave now. Flora turned and headed for the city's entrance where they came in. The crowd moved aside for her giving her the passage out of their homes.

Vincent walked out of the crowded area and waited to meet up with Flora. She came by and he walked beside her, causing the people to murmuring with one another, commenting her as they went pass the mass..

"Why do you bother helping them?" he muttered to her. The mass gave signs and expression of disgust and such. Possibly thinking why someone would associate with a Claymore, but Vincent and Flora just ignored them. "They do not express thanks in a proper way."

"It's my job, there's no changing it," Flora replied, "Just ignore the remarks."

Very soon, the people decided it would be best to continue on with their daily lives and pretend they did not existed in the first place, luckily the heavy tension died down as they came closer in leaving the city.

A sly looking man with two of his goons snickered at his remark about Vincent and Flora vulgarly. "He probably fucks that slutty body of hers at night. I can only wonder what kind of sexual performance she could do for him."

Vincent overheard the comment, and knew Flora probably heard it as well. Vincent stopped in his tracks and turned to glare demonically at the one who said it. The man panicked along with his associates as their legs turned jelly. The glare was powerful enough to make his blood pressure rise significantly. Flora placed her hand on his arm, gently squeezing it. "Let's just go."

He signaled them to leave his sights, and they hurried in compliance.

They made their way to the edge of the city without another disturbance. Flora saw a small family of three siblings and a baby at the edge of the city on the side of the road. Like them, they were nothing more than discarded members of society.

The family was comprised of two older girls who looked no more than fourteen and sixteen years old. Both were similar in appearance with their long brunette hair but their height differed. One was carrying a bundled baby infant with a baby strap holding onto the infant, and the other holding the hand of a little boy. The little brother who didn't look more than four years old with messy sandy color hair, while they all have the same shade brown eyes. They looked like a mess, their clothes torn and ripped, and it didn't look like they hadn't eaten in a while.

The little boy watched as they approached them. The older sister hushed the boy, but he couldn't resist saying anything. "You say Claymores scary people. She very beautiful!" he said.

In an instance, Flora stopped to look at the young child who commented her beauty, but the older sister hushed him and held him close to her. The boy struggled to break free from her sister's grasp and ran up to the Claymore. "Pretty lady you kill the monster took mama and papa from us?"

Flora knelt to the boy's height, "I did. Is this your family?" Flora gave him a smile and the boy nodded, pointing at the two sisters who kept their distance. Vincent noticed the sister carrying the baby sibling using a belt. The baby whimpered in distress as the sister tried to calm the infant.

"Is he-" Vincent began.

"S-She… it's a she," the sister corrected him on the gender of the baby still frightened of Vincent.

Vincent apologized then continued, "Sorry, is she sick?" The sisters nodded, but the boy remained cheerful for some reason.

"Big bwoder is working to get her feel better," he stated.

Flora didn't know why she felt saddened by this: their mother and father butchered by the yomas, the older brother was working to maintain his brother and three sisters, and their young baby sister was ill.

Flora reached behind her cloak and pulled out a head size handbag and walked over to the sisters and handed to her. "Take it…" Flora simply stated to them. "Use this to get a warm place to stay, food on the table, and your sister treated by a doctor."

Peering into the bag, left the sisters in shock by the size of currency Flora had just handed to them. This was unorthodox to be charitable. She didn't save them from the yoma nor had she taken revenge for them, but she couldn't abandon them. "This should last you for several weeks. It is not a permanent solution, but it's a stepping stone."

"T-t-thank you!" they bowed their heads repeatedly at Flora. Flora raised her hands in protest that she needed not be thanked, but then, the little boy unpredictably attached himself onto her leg hugging her tightly, Flora never felt such appreciation since she was a child.

As the siblings continued to give Flora gratified thanks, Vincent took noticed of the belt the baby sister was bundled in: a leather belt-like wrapping with a front that covers the lower stomach section. What got his attention was the fat front part had a logo embedded in the clothing accessory… a SOLDIER emblem.

"Beg your pardon, where did you get this belt?" Vincent hastily asked. The sister pointed at the belt that carried the baby.

"Well, big brother said that he found it at some wreckage beneath some cliffs off the passage to the North in Talvian Forest. I can't specifically say where though."

Flora looked at Vincent to confirm if it's a clue to his mission. "We should really go now, please take care of the little ones." Flora tried to free herself from the boy's grasp, and with the help of the older sister, they were able to pry him off her leg.

The little boy waved goodbye to the red and grey warriors with Flora returning the gesture while Vincent ignored him. They left the city walls and began to discuss their course of action now.

"How far is Talvian Forest from here?" Vincent asked Flora for the directions.

Flora stated, "It's roughly less than two hours or so to reach there, but Talvian Forest is a vast forest. Was that belt special or something?"

"Indeed, the belt is a common armament for a SOLDIER's attire. The symbol of SOLDIER was embedded in the front portion of the belt. If some evidence that SOLDIER have truly been here, then there would be a connection to the missing materia. We should begin to head there now."

Flora once again guided Vincent to his desired location. Reaching Talvian Forest, they entered and continued on the path and tried to find some sort of distinctive landmark or clues that would veer Vincent to what he searching for. During their tedious search, they talked much about the marvels of their two distinctive worlds.

"So if what you have slain is a yoma, then what was the thing I fought the day before?" Vincent asked as he trailed behind Flora.

"It was an Awakened Being; the final form of my kin," Flora replied. "The monsters we faced today were mere yoma; they are natural inhabitants of the land."

"And you take upon the flesh of these yoma in order to become a Claymore. A bit extreme to put in a piece of foreign flesh into a human isn't it?" Vincent asked Flora.

"We are not called Claymores," Flora repeatedly reminded him.

"I have to call your species something other than 'warriors'. And since the term Claymore is commonly used by humans I might as well call your kind Claymore as well, even though you do not acknowledge the title given to you." Vincent stated his argument.

She sighed accepting the term Claymore, "If you wish to call us that," then she resumed to answer his question, "You can be correct on several factors, but the highest priority is to eliminate the threat of yoma. Most humans would run from a yoma than to fight it, and those that have fought a yoma usually ended up dying or were left to die from injuries. There needed to be a weapon that can combat these yomas and creating a weapon from yoma's flesh was the solution they have come up with."

"SOLDIER was a similar procedure, though it was not to protect peoples or nations, but profit. Every SOLDIER is injected with mako cells that increase the status of humans: strength, power, speed, reaction, and healing abilities. They are elite solders that allow the rich to maintain dominance over others for power and profit," Vincent explained, allowing Flora to feel more at ease because she did not originate from his world.

"Actually, in a way, SOLDIER and Claymores are alike. Every time we are called to eliminate a yoma in a town, it costs a fortune. We can deplete an entire town's profit in order to take out a yoma. I merely kill yomas, because that is the reason 'Claymores' exists," Flora replied giving her theory about the two types of warriors.

Vincent suddenly stopped Flora. "What is it?" Flora asked Vincent; she could tell that he had spotted something.

"Over there," Vincent said pointing in the direction of a cliff in a clearing east of their location. He holstered his weapon and slowly made his way over with Flora following close behind. At the bottom of the cliff were some trees covering a wreckage that speared the ground, a narrow black metallic object impaled to the ground.

"What is that?" Flora asked Vincent, unsure what it was.

"Here, hold onto me, Flora," Vincent told her as he returned his weapon to his holster and lift Flora off her feet. She allowed his hands drift onto her body as she clutch a rigid grip onto her sword so that it wouldn't poke Vincent in any unwanted places. She made no complaint as he touched her, knowing it was of no use to do so. Taking a step forward, Vincent fell rapidly to the near bottomless ground. He used anything that was of use to control the velocity of his landing onto the ground.

There was a light tap on the ground as he landed and placed Flora back onto her feet. Before Flora could even ask, Vincent identified what the object was, "A Black Hawk class helicopter."

The Black Hawk is a four bladed rotary aircraft, a black body with four doors: two pilot-side doors two sliding doors in behind. The helicopter looked as if it crashed from a nose dive since the nose was flatly crushed. The most of the windows were shattered, and the metallic alloy was rusting in several proportions of the aircraft due to abandonment of the craft with no one to maintain it.

"What is a 'helicopter' used for?" Flora asked examining the object's design.

Vincent explained, "Black Hawks are used in various situations. In this case, since there are no signs of exterior weapon equipments, it looked like the purpose of this one was personnel transportation like a horse carriage."

"How does it transport people?"

He explained how helicopters are faster than normal means of transport, such as using animals, or natural powered engines like wind. He also explained that helicopters fly through the sky instead of the ground or sea to her and her reaction was one word, "Fascinating."

Near the crash sight, were seven decomposed corpses. "From the looks of the wreckage and the corpses, seemed the crash happened two to three years ago," Vincent explained.

Flora examined the corpses carefully and found something interesting. "I can sense yoki residue in the remains; these corpses could possibly be yomas."

Vincent went into the overturned helicopter. Most of the outer frame was rusted, but the interior was still preserved. There was some dried blood in the helicopter but Vincent paid no attention to that.

He checked the cockpit for any sort of information. "What's a Shinra Helicopter doing here on this world?" he wondered out loud. Miraculously the navigational system was still operational, so he turned it on to identify if there was a destination and a point of origin.

Once Vincent gathered the required information, he joined Flora outside where she waited for him patiently. "I must head west of here that is where its origin is from." Flora nodded in his response; she was willing to guide him to his required location. "But first, I should remove all traces of this..." Vincent said pulling out his Griffon.

Taking a few steps back, Vincent fired at the helicopter's fuel tanks, causing what remained of the fuel to gush outwards. He used the one of his materia, this time it was wielding the power of lighting. She shot his hand towards the leaking fuel, and a bolt of lighting expelled from his hand. The lighting struck the fuel causing a trail of fire leading to back to the fuel tanks, but the lighting traveled into the helicopter as a series of electronic explosions occurred inside and outside of the Black Hawk. Almost immediately, the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames.

"I can't allow traces of technology in the wrong hands. This can lead to devastating results if it's wrongfully used," Vincent told Flora.

"I doubt there's anyone that can use this anyways," Flora replied. They were not even at the state of making things such as these. "What about the bodies?" She looked over the corpses that lay before them.

"They may be connected, but they serve no purpose," Vincent spoke of their possible relation to his mission, but they proved no worth as decayed corpses.

They threw the bodies into the fire, and then continued to head west following the strongest evidence so far. A burst of a large explosion was heard from behind them. A small gush of wind blew, making trees rattle their leaves and the grass creating waves. But Vincent ignored the aftereffects of the explosion of what he believed to be from the helicopter fuel tanks. He knew there would be just debris left, and nothing salvageable. But, he paid more attention to what was at hand.

"Perhaps I can finally have a lead now…"


	4. Reminiscence

**Chapter 4: Reminiscence**

It had been a few hours since they had departed west, away from the gorge where the helicopter was found. Soon, the sun was going to set in little hours left there was of sunlight. As they proceeded further westward of their location, nature seemed to quiet itself and the vegetation slowly started to become silent with an ominous expectation.

This felt strange to Flora, though she did not admit it. No Claymores had passed this road before. Finally they passed some withered trees, coming to a large structure.

When the building came into full view, Vincent can only said the first two words than came to mind, "Shinra Mansion."

The manor was moderately small for its size, with only two floors judging by two levels of windows as seen from the exterior. It was an old style manor, fitted for Flora's world; easily adaptable with their culture. It was comprised of wood, brick and stone. Majority of the complex was brick and stone with the wood used as strong structural support in the exterior frame. And a mansard roof covered with bluish-purple slate (or at least Vincent presumed it was slate) with windows built into it as a style.

"Is this where it came from?" Flora asked Vincent, who was behind her throughout the journey.

"It looks like it; it reminds me of something on my world somewhat," Vincent replied, looking at a replication of the Shinra Manor, though the surrounding was not of the original. There were some smaller wooden cabins, broken down tents and a heliport which is only leveled dirt with a circle with an "H" painted in white.

Examining the area, it looked as if it had been untouched by the inhabitants of nature. Not even a cobweb was threaded; it was a forsaken place, even in nature's eyes.

A series of paved roads leading from cabins and the heliport all led to the front entrance of the mansion. Two stone columns stood on either side of the front entrance: two large doors made up of stone.

Just as a precaution, Vincent always kept his hand on his holstered pistol. Even the lifeless earth could hold enemies that lie in its depths, sleeping and waiting. Flora had gotten the hint and kept her hand ready to reach for her sword, set to engage when she needed to.

"The place I've slept and been awoken from. It certainly brings a collusion of the past, the present, the future." Vincent said walking onto the stone paved walkway towards the house and Flora followed.

"This place sends a strange vibe in my body," Flora mumbled, the warm blood within her seemed to freeze with each step taken into the complex.

Entering the mansion, Vincent's memories had already resurfaced in the main hall. Various things he had experienced in the Shinra Manor in his world in a town called Nibelheim.

"The place where it all began..." Vincent mumbled.

Flora saw that he was acting a bit different from usual. The tone of his voice sounded lightened. She saw that Vincent began to act differently; since entering the manor that this replica of the so-called "Shinra Manor" is having an effect on Vincent.

"The beginning of a great change began in this hall," Vincent told her, eyeing at the middle of the room adjacent to a wooden staircase on the far right of the main hall. It led to the sub-floor which could be describe as an indoor balcony and the second floor floor. The entire interior was primarily made from stone and bricks (including the floor) and wooden furniture was decorated around the inside of the mansion. There were two and two hallways rooms on the main floor with two on either the left or the right wings, and two halls leading to either top left or right wings of the manor.

Vincent followed his instincts as his memories came with it, with Flora following close behind. He made his way to the second room on the left wing.

"Everything seems to be as it was, or almost…" he said entering what was the dining room, which also seemed to be an ideal meeting place. This was also the first place where he met her too, and began to recall the event that took place many years ago.

_Vincent introduced himself. "Vincent Valentine reporting for duty, ma'am. I have been assigned your protection." _

_The woman gasped when Vincent mentioned his family name._

"_No… Why would they send his…?" She mumbled._

"_Excuse me?" Vincent asked._

"_I apologize. This is the first time I've ever met someone from the Turks. Lucrecia Crescent. Pleased to make your acquaintance Mr. Valentine." Lucrecia replied cheerfully and politely at him._

Flora looked through some scattered documents on the long wooden dining table. A layer of dust was visible over the files.

Picking up some of the documents, he saw that they were random documents of SOLDIERs from a war fought many years ago. Flora also looked into the spreadsheets. Luckily for her, their worlds possessed the same language and writing; she wondered if the Organization processed information in the same way.

Flora began reading silently while Vincent continued to look for whatever he is searching for. "I don't think I can find information here; these are only profiles of SOLDIERs during the Wutai War."

"Vincent? Who is Weiss?" Flora asked suddenly as she continued to stare at a particular file. He came over to her and double-checked if she had read the name correctly.

He read it more than enough to remember the name clearly. "Weiss the Immaculate, host of Omega like I am host for Chaos. He is the pureness and I am the foulness. We are equals, yet Omega is the knight and Chaos is its squire."

Another remnant memory began to rouse his thoughts. The first time he had heard Weiss's voice.

_A WRO Member spoke out, "Commissioner! A rogue transmission is being broadcast on all wavelengths!_

"_At last. The time has come to cleanse the world. The pure will be spared for the cause, while the tainted will be hunted down and exterminated…" a malice voice spoke through the speakers_

"_My body as one with Omega as yours is with Chaos."_

"Vincent, who is he?" Flora asked as Vincent returned her the document, looking at the picture of Weiss. A young man with short white hair He wore what seemed to be a soldier's attire.

He turned his back onto her, "A man with a dream of a purified world and one who also brought upon murderous acts to kill innocents by the thousands. He is also a man… whom I killed a year ago."

"Killed, but it said here…" Flora began.

"I read what it said, Flora. This information is rather old according to the date this document was issued, but there is a larger plot at hand here. This isn't a mere random occurrence. Weiss had ties to Omega, as I to Chaos. Come, there must be some sort of information in the basement."

She dropped the document and quickly grabbed her sword before Vincent dragged her with him by the hand.

They came about to a storage compartment located in the next room. Stocks of wooden boxes were scatter across the room, but there was no way to this room other than how they have entered it. One particular aspect of this room is the opposite wall is curved inwards to the room. It was not a flat wall like the other three walls.

"Maybe we should explore the other rooms, this is a dead end." Vincent ignored her suggestion.

He hoped that this will also contained the same blueprint as the original, knowing the exact layout of Shinra Manor. A great amount of time was spent in this building, and he had memorized its secrets.

Across the room on the circular wall, he knocked on the bricks, and a small cloud of dust crumbled from the ceiling above. Determining this was where they would enter the basement. With a good push, the wall pushed backwards and fell into a gap in the floor opening a new access.

"Come, the basement is this way," Vincent said, revealing a secret passage to the unknown.

Flora leaned over to see the depth of a spiral stair, but it was nothing compared to where she had fallen from her missions in the past. They descended down the flight of stairs and reached the ground.

The basement was more or less the same; its construction had improved since the original. As the original looked like a mineshaft, but there were new improvement in the structure such as: steel bolts were in place to reinforce the caverns from crumbling, the ground had been leveled and cement had covering the earth. Lighting was still the same, using standard electrical lanterns which only gave enough suitable light to see.

Proceeding past a few metal doors and down the hall to the other end, Vincent's instincts proved him right: on the far end of the hall, lies a room with visibility of what he was searching for. They entered a room which was half archived library, and half laboratory with some science equipments.

"There it is," Vincent said, advancing towards the bluish orb that remained dormant. It was in some sort of test machine. The machine was still functioning, as the materia was being afloat in a green particle field as two polar points kept it in the air.

"What is this place?" Flora looked around the half library-half laboratory.

"This is a place where you can deform nature change then into monstrous forms of life, calling yourself a God for what you can create," Vincent replied with malice. He knew first hand of what took place here, for he was one of many finished products of monsters. They can look humans, but they are far from humans.

"It started nine years ago, and hasn't stopped since; no… it has been twenty-eight years ago. The day where I should've stopped it from happening, and then none of this would've happened. That is my sin… for allowing this fiendish deed to continue even after my death and the deaths of many others." He expressed remorse, and took the blame for what had transpired over the years.

"But…"

"Check the documents over there Flora; look for any sort of keywords related to 'Bahamut' 'materia' or 'clone,' and see if there is anything useful you may think," Vincent commanded her, disregarding the topic at hand.

She did as she was told to do; both placed their weapons on the table and began scuffling through the documents. Even though the materia was right in front of Vincent, he wanted to make sure it was safe to remove it just like that.

"Vincent I think I found something." Flora handed him a set of documents and he began to see the keywords he mentioned.

"Good job…" Vincent complimented her before he began to read the writing on the papers.

Flora was quite bored as Vincent read, so she just roamed around the room see various things. There were various types of items on the other side of the room. Some crystallized orbs, to be exact.

For some odd reason Flora wondered if they were magical orbs like what Vincent had. She resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, but her nosiness wanted her to. She decided to pursue her eagerness to hold it. She gradually reached out to grab it; when she touched it just slightly over the cold orb, it glowed and flashed.

Vincent was startled by the unexpected turning around to see what Flora had done, but never got a chance to say anything.

"…an organism that was apparently dead was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism Jenova X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient---X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor 1 approved for use. My mother's name is Jenova… Jenova Project. Is this just a coincidence? Professor Gast… Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?"

Sprouting into action he picked up his gun quickly and scoured the room for the source of 'his' voice. "…Flora… did you touch anything?" He asked, slowly moving around the room cautiously.

"Only this," Flora held out her hand showing the orb's laminating light die away.

"A data module…" It was a false alarm. Vincent placed his weapon back onto the table; believing 'he' was in the same room was nerve wrecking.

"Whose voice was that?" Flora asked, putting down the module, "You look startled; was the voice familiar to you?"

"The voice of an evil memory that will always be remembered…" Vincent simply said; he didn't want her exposed too much of what has happened in the past, or, more likely, rather not to be involved with this at all. "It seemed they required Bahamut for an experiment, though it didn't say what kind of experiment. But there isn't enough information of the user or who have retrieved it."

"So… what does that mean?"

Sighing, he tried to resist the urge to tell her another thing he'd rather not say to her. "It means my mission complete. It is time for me to return and report back."

"O-oh…" Flora held her breath.

"_He's leaving? But we've only begun!"_ her thought shouted.

He grabbed the materia and inserted into his forearm. "I would need more facts and data for why Bahamut was stolen in the first place surfaces. And… why there is a replica of Shinra Manor on this world. There isn't much to go on with; I cannot be the only one to finalize the decision to continue on my mission."

"So your orders were only to retrieve the materia you came looking for?" Flora asked, hoping there was some sort of gap she could use to prolong his stay more.

"No, the full orders were given was to locate the user of Bahamut, user's intentions for stealing it and eliminate the user. But priority one… retrieve Bahamut overrides all other orders if they cannot be performed."

For the first time in Flora's vocabulary, she mentally said, _"… Damn."_

"I must dispose this facility and all traces of our presence here. I need you to leave first Flora… I'm going to change my form into the Gillian Beast; with that form, I can fully destroy this place."

"Alright, I will wait for you outside." Flora followed his instructions, and picked up her sword she began her journey back up the stairs. It was nearly sundown according to Flora the color of the skies was an orange-pink sky when she exited the mansion. She moved away, following the path leading to the landing zone for the helicopter.

A deepening roar erupted from the earth, vibrating the ground. Unlike last time, Flora did not see what Vincent's full strength in his beast form. From the Shinra Manor, a fiery explosion punched through the roof and out flew the beast she once saw.

It hovered over the building, unleashing its fire attacks causing multiple explosions, and within seconds, the building burned to the ground. Vincent landed back onto the ground, making a crater on the already deepened ground. With his iron-like muscles and fists he penetrated the ground. Unbeknown to Flora, he unleashed furies of fireballs into the ground and headed for the smaller buildings. Before long, the entire vicinity was in flames. His deed was complete.

Once again, a black aura consumed Vincent and his regular physical form was returned. A roaring fire shrieked behind him as his shadow came over her.

"I suppose… this is where we will depart, Flora."

"No wait… couldn't you stay longer?!" Flora desperately asked him.

"I'm sorry Flora, but I have to go back," Vincent tried to reason with her. She clamped onto him tightened her hug around his body.

He only stood there as she cuddled him. "I don't want you to go…" Flora whispered. He did not reply.

"Because I've fallen for you…" she finally said barely above a whisper.

"What?" Vincent's mind became shaken, "I…" Words couldn't form in his vocal chords. He tried mustering his voice say something, but she continued nevertheless.

"But, it is fine Vincent," Flora smiled looking up at him with little bulbs of tears in her eyes. "So I want you… to make this farewell memorable."

He had gotten the hint from what she had just said, "Flora…" Vincent was at his second loss for words, but he knew what he wanted to say. "Flora, I also harbor such feelings for you too… but what you are asking of me… would only mean the final chapter of our relationship."

"But…" Vincent silenced her.

"I don't want to end it here. If we do this now… we may find satisfaction in our journey together fulfilled. No… I don't want that."

She never thought of it this way. Though they may be distant from each other, it would not mean the end of what they have.

"I want this to continue… that's why I will have to turn it down. I'm sorry, Flora," Vincent said to her.

"You've changed since we first met Vincent…" Flora said, allowing her eyes to blink, "I don't want it to end either." She looked up with a satisfied smile on her beautiful, angelic features.

He lowered himself to gently kiss her on the lips, and she gladly accepted it. Though it was not passionate as she expected it, but she felt it was more than enough for her to handle.

They shared one final embrace, before Vincent turned away, trying to restrain his shoulders from trembling. She could not help her eyes caressing his back as he began to walk away; moving towards the distant forest. Then disappear from her sight. She remained there for a long time, staring at his departing form. Although they could not hear each other anymore, their words for each other were carried by the winds.

"I will return," he murmured.

"I will wait for you," she whispered.

_**A/N:**_

This chapter may have way too many cliché elements (and probably lots of typos & grammatical errors that I have missed)...

This is the first time I've put an author's note in my chapters. I wanted to give the readers a little Thanksgiving surprise to you. Even if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving; I would like to give thanks to the readers and supporters of this fiction in progress.

I would like to update you all on my current progression so far in college… I want to hang myself. Kidding, but I'm overly stressed and it's becoming harder and harder to give time to Shards of Confluence: Overture. Heck, it's even harder to even get any research done for college. Apparently I didn't know that Psychology is a highly demanded program in university and chances I might not be accepted. Since a couple thousands other Psych. Majors students wants in as well.

I cannot tell **IF** I'll even give another surprise with the next chapter. But just to tell you all (because I forgot to even mention it in the beginning of the fic), Shards of Confluence: Overture starts off with a series of what I say to be "Character Arcs". I've devised a series of arcs in order to introduce the next sets of characters, while continuing on with the stories. So far, I have completed the Flora arc, but does not mean she is not one of the main casts.

Also for Final Fantasy VII diehard fans, I like to apologize due to my limited data regarding to the description of Shinra Manor, because it does not describe it as it should be.

So until next time, I bid farewell and happy Thanksgiving to those who do celebrate it once again. And have a wonderful (non-stressful) weekend.

_**TheDarkSprit**_


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